Encouragement From God’s Word

Did you know that the Bible, the scripture, was written to teach and encourage us in His word so that we would have hope? This is encouragement from God’s word.

Hope – A Key Ingredient to Encouragement

Think about it! Words aren’t very encouraging if they don’t bring us hope. I think about the guests that have shared their stories on Your Everyday Life Podcast. Some of their situations seemed hopeless. Over. No way out. But there was hope.

So how does God’s word bring us hope? There are undoubtedly those whose hope has ended in disappointment. Let’s see a raise of hands out there. I get it. We have all “hoped” at some point in our lives that someone would be there for us at a trying time. Or maybe someone gave you hope about something and you never saw it happen. Maybe it was a relationship that you were hopeful about. Or maybe you had hoped to receive something and it never happened.

Rats Without Hope

Source: Click here

Rats? In the 1950’s Dr. Richter, a professor at Johns Hopkins tested rats. Rats are known to be decent swimmers. In this study, none of the rats (wild or domesticated) lasted more than a few minutes before they drowned (yes it was a cruel test) in his lab experience. When the rats felt the situation was hopeless, they simply gave up.

What he found was this. At that test point when he knew the rat would give up, he pulled them out of the water. He dried them off and let them rest a bit. He then put them back in. What did he find? Did he discover that the rats lasted another 10 or 15 minutes similar to before? No. He found that they now were going for several days, up to 60 hours! Wow!

The Power of Hope

What changed? They had hope!

Now let me be among the first to say that hope alone, all in itself, will most often disappoint us. Even hope in others has let many of us down over the years. I even remember back to my little league games as a kid. We would be down a run or two, but then begin to rally late in the game. We would get a couple of hits, a couple of teammates on base, and then boom – one, two, three, and we were out. That last out ended our hopes.

The God Kind of Hope

Let me share with you the God kind of hope. Encouragement from God’s word. What makes that any different? Let’s start with this verse out of the book of Romans…

Romans 15:4 NIV

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

So if the scriptures give us hope by encouraging us, how does “just having” hope make a difference? People “hope” for a lot of things, but the missing key is this…

Hebrews 11:1 KJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The conclusion is this:

Hope, in and with the word of God, has substance.

Hope, without and outside of the word of God, is only wishful thinking.

So just imagine the power of Hope (example of the rats) fueled by the Word of God. Wow, that is powerful. So powerful that it encourages us. Now that’s World Overcoming Faith!

Just imagine, when your brain finally catches this. The power you have in speaking the Word of God in your own life. And also the power you have speaking the life-giving Word of God in other’s lives.

God’s Word is Real

Remember that anything and everything exists because it was spoken into existence by God, God’s word. The unseen is more real, and more powerful than the seen. That’s hard for us to relate to because we are so accustomed to and programmed by our three-dimensional world.

Challenge of the Week

What is it you are hoping for this week or in life? This week identify or define what your hope is. Now that you have identified it, put substance to it. What is substance? “The real physical matter of which a person or thing consists and which has a tangible, solid presence.” What gives your hope substance? Encouragement from God’s word. So be it!